The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c11.37

c11.37

The fine elements are described as without difference in them, while the gross elements which arise from them are expressly described as possessing this quality, from which it would seem that the gross elements are considered, as in the *Chāndogya Upaniṣad* (vi, 4), where, however, there are but three elements in question, to be produced by the intermingling of the fine elements, the elements receiving their special names from the presence in them of the greater amount of the specific element, in accordance with the view of the Vedānta, in which each element consists of a half of one element and one-eighth each of the other four. The alternative view suggested by the *Taittirīya Upaniṣad* (ii, 1) under which the gross elements would arise from the compounding of the fine elements by the process of accumulation, wind, for example, having both the qualities of audibility and tactibility, is adopted by Gauḍapāda and Vācaspatimiśra, but seems to have less probability, since in it ether would have but one quality, audibility, and so could not be contrasted as a gross element with the corresponding fine element.